Specs for My Student Rosemary

Beyond the classroom...One of my students, Rosemary, has been telling me since the first week of school that her eyes "pain" her. Sometimes I enter the classroom in the morning to find Rosemary with her head down on the desk in tears. I asked her if her vision is blurry when she looks at reading close or far away. She said when she looks at something far away it is blurry. I thought there must be something I can do about her problem while I am here. This is where my now dear friend from the Netherlands, Carolein, comes to save the day! As I mentioned in a previous blog, Carolein is working for The Optical Foundation in Cape Coast giving free eye exams and fitting children with glasses for a very low cost, between $1-4 US. She has brought hundreds of frames with her from the Netherlands and she found a place in OSU to make lenses at a discounted price. She told me that if I could take Rosemary to a doctor and get a prescription then she would submit the prescription to the shop she is dealing with and get Rosemary the glasses she needs. Perfect! On my way into Accra I always pass by The Emmanuel Eye Center in East Legon so I thought we would try there. Ken, the principal of Wisdom, was very supportive about this idea and asked Rosemary's mother if I could take her daughter to Accra for the day and she said yes! This woman is trusting me, the Obruni to put her 13 daughter onto a TRO and take her to Accra for the day, wow! Let me tell you about this mission...

8:30am - Stand on road in Kitase in the blazin sun waiting for a tro to stop
9:30am - All tros driving by are full (this is common) A tro finally stops.
11:00 - Arrive at the Emmanuel Eye Center. Hit lots of traffic on the way in.
We check in and pay $5. I tell the woman several times that we are here for a prescription for Rosemary to get glasses and she guarantees me that I will leave today with the prescription in hand.
11-1:30 - Wait 2.5 hours to be seen by the eye doctor. Everyone sits in plastic chairs in rows in order and when a person gets up to have their exam, everyone stands up and moves down the line.
1:30 - Rosemary is finally seen and doctor says from what he can see her eyes are fine, this took about 5 minutes.
1:40 - Leave the exam room and I ask about the prescription. A woman informs me that Rosemary needs to be seen again by a different doctor which will cost more money and the eyes need to be dilated. Please keep in mind that I do not wear glasses and know nothing about the process! Oh, she says, and we do not dialate the eyes in the afternoon so you will have to come back tomorrow! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Are you serious???? I explained to the woman that it was very difficult for us to make the journey there today and I told her that I was told a few hours ago that I would indeed leave with a prescription. I told her that I was very upset about this. The doctor got involved and said come back in the AM and he would not charge us. Well that helps a little but this means that I would miss another teaching day!
2:00 - I take Rosemary to the OSU food court for chicken and rice. She really liked having lunch in Accra.
2:30 - Rosemary is in the Computer Club and I wanted her to see a nice Internet Cafe that is actually fast. She loved this!
5:00 - Get to 37 to catch TRO, there are a million people there to do the same thing, people will push and shove to get on the TRO and I will not do this
6:00 - Finally catch TRO from 37 and hit traffic on the way back to Kitase
7:45 - Arrive in Kitase, Ken makes dinner for both of us. Rosemary spends the night at my house because it is too late for her to go home and we are leaving in the AM for the eye center. I have 2 twin beds in my room so this worked out great!

Next day, back to Eye Center, everything went fine and Rosemary now has her glasses! Red frames, she loves them and is the only student at Wisdom to have glasses, she wears them proudly!!! Thank you Carolein!!!